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It was about 10:00 PM, three objects were walking down the stone path of a large yard. They’d gotten word that some “criminal” had been going around interfering with mass gatherings, causing several objects to go missing in the process. Thus, they’d decided to attend a recent party in hopes of catching the culprit, or at least in hopes of getting some clues. The path led up to a massive, well-decorated building, and music could already be heard playing from inside. Journal, Treasure Chest, and Post-It Note exchanged glances as they approached, noticing the lack of any sort of guard or entity outside.
Colored lights could be seen from through the building’s few windows, and the objects already inside seemed fine…but the three were prepared, having brought a multitude of tools hidden within their outfits. Without further hesitation, they let themselves in through the massive front doors of the place, immediately greeted with the sight of numerous objects all dressed up in front of them. Stages and platforms of different heights seemed to be scattered around the place, though at the moment they seemed like they were being used as tables or seats.
“Wow…” Treasure Chest gasped. “This is…amazing!”
“I’ll admit, it is a lot nicer than I imagined,” Post-It Note huffed as he gestured outwards towards the party. “But…I’m not getting a good feeling from this little…“arrangement” here.”
“I’m not, either,” Journal replied. “But I don’t quite know what they’d be for.”
“Maybe they’re for the performer that was planning to show up?” Treasure Chest offered. “You know, the one mentioned in the paper we saw pinned on the pole?”
“Oh right, the reason we picked this party in the first place…” Post-It Note nodded. “Did it mention the performer’s name?”
“I think it was “Dagger” or something?” Treasure Chest shrugged. “Guess we’ll just have to find out when they show up.”
“Guess so…”
As the trio made their way down the stairs to the party, a LED keyboard object walked up to greet them.
“Welcome to the party, you three! Hope you have fun!!” they said with a smile.
“Thanks,” Journal replied awkwardly.
“We’ve got games if you’re bored, even Cornhole!!” the keyboard added.
“Nice,” Treasure Chest nodded with a smile. “We’ll be sure to check it out!”
The keyboard then left the three alone to their own devices, walking back to the groups of party objects to strike up a conversation elsewhere.
“We’re not…actually going to check it out, are we?” Post-It Note asked quietly the second the keyboard was out of earshot.
“No, not unless that winds up being a reason for suspicion,” Treasure Chest confirmed.
“Good, remember why we’re here, now.”
Journal, Treasure Chest, and Post-It Note continued to have a look around at the place, taking in the sights under the yellow colored lights. There were tables and tables of food, all positioned towards a wall in the back so as to not be in the way of anyone walking (or dancing) around. Some people were drinking while conversing, others were dancing to the music that was playing. It looked like an innocent enough scenario, but…the group couldn’t take any chances.
“Don’t eat or interact with anything unless you have to,” Journal warned. “For all we know, anything could be hidden in this place.”
“Right, keepin’ an eye out,” Treasure Chest replied affirmatively.
With so many objects talking over each other, blending in and keeping to yourself was an easy feat. As the trio approached the party crowd, they did their best to hold proper posture. Their uniforms luckily didn’t stick out against the dresses and tuxedos present, but they made sure to stay close together so they could hear one another as they maneuvered through the other objects. Snippets of conversations could be overheard as the trio made their way around, none of the figures here looking suspicious so far. All voices seemed to quiet to a hush however, as a voice sung from the stage in the center of the room.
“I'm the light…every night, in your wooorld…”
Almost everyone in the crowd turned to look at the source of the voice, the trio now noticing that one of the stage areas was surrounded in a veil. A shadow of a figure stood behind it as the lighting in the room began to change, as if to emphasize focus on them. Any object that was sitting on a platform or part of the stage before had immediately gotten off, and anyone seated on a couch or chair either sat up a little more or fully stood up out of said seat. Journal and the others remained quiet in anticipation…
“Are you reeeaaady to waaatch me be legendaryyy~?”
Their voice was calm, gentle…soothing, even. The three slowly made a move to walk slightly closer, noticing that the music that was playing before had gone completely silent. The figure behind the veil raised their arms slowly as they sung, as if to make a dramatic gesture.
“ ‘Cause IIIIIII’M-!”
Their voice rose in volume before dropping to a whisper, though mere seconds later the trio could make out what they said.
“Ultra. Luminary.”
In one swift movement, the object changed their position from a still pose to a lively one. A wave of “oooh”s and “aaah”s rippled through the crowd as they did so, several people starting to get pictures. Only seconds later the veils around the performer opened up, revealing the object behind them as different music began to play. The object then began to step down from the higher up point of the stage they were on, approaching the party.
“You wish on me in my glitter light…first star you see tonight~”
They resembled a dagger, alright. Their head was a straightened, metallic gray blade, and around their shoulder area was a golden handle guard of some sort, a red gemstone embedded in the middle of it. They seemed to be wearing some kind of fancy robe as well, one well suited for a party such as this. Post-It Note quietly whipped out his device and took a photo too, in case it was needed for later.
“So wish away, wish with all your might…upon this radiant sight!”
The crowd of party objects cheered at the performer and their song, several of them now recording on their handheld devices. Journal held his breath as the performer went on with their show, waiting for anything to happen next. The lighting seemed to change to a cool blue color as the the music played, and for a second it almost looked like it was nighttime inside the room. As magical as it was, the three kept on their toes…
“The stars ignite, they flame from dust…born out of gravity and force, they combust! And though they try, in rivalryyy…”
There seemed to be a group of backup singers aiding this object, but none of the trio could find them amongst the crowd. Treasure Chest scanned the room for anyone suspicious hanging around towards the back of the room, but only noticed a few objects who were either eating some food or talking with each other. None of them looked like they had weapons hidden on their person, and none were giving the stage a suspicious glance every 5 seconds…
“They'll never shine bright as me! I'm the light every night in your world, hey!”
The lights abruptly changed to a yellow and magenta color, a sharp contrast from the original dark blue. The performer was unaffected however, and continued on with their energetic dance moves. Even some of the objects in the crowd started to clap along to the beat, almost at the same volume of the music. Journal, Treasure Chest, and Post-It Note naturally did not follow along.
“You revel in the glory of my beauty! You ready to watch me be legendary?”
The dagger object walked back up towards the part of the stage they were on before dramatically turning around, giving the crowd of objects a smile as they struck a stylish pose.
“Cuz I'm ultraluminary!”
In an instant, the entire party room lit up, more so than it had been before. Confetti and glitter was fired from hidden machines as the music was turned up, the performer dancing to the beat and singing along.
“Whoah-ah-oh-oh, welcome to Lunaria! Whoah-ah-oh-oh, so spectacularia!”
Almost out of nowhere, several cloaked objects appeared to hop onto the platforms, each with their own gimmicks and tricks. Some were juggling, some balanced items atop themselves, some even blew fire from sticks. The trio couldn’t help but notice that they all wore masks though, mostly to cover their faces. None of them looked familiar, but the crowd only seemed to cheer and clap at the sights and spectacles before them.
“Whoah-ah-oh-oh, super singulary! Cuz I'm, so very, very…Extraordinaria!”
Excited shouts rose from the crowd as the performer struck a pose, shortly before walking onto a different platform. The trio kept their eyes on them, though Journal warily watched the performers in case any of them tried anything. Sure, there were less of them than there were people in the crowd, but at an event like this, the numbers were an easy way to remain hidden. As the music continued, the cloaked objects stopped with their acts to hop off the platforms, the lights shifting back over to the performer’s platform.
“The cosmic shine of my fine display…can turn the night to day!”
The crowd’s eyes were still glued to the show as it went on. The performer even started to make their way through the objects, a spotlight from above remaining on them the entire time. They danced around the crowd members, either gesturing towards them or getting within a close range. Something about it was…alluring in a sense, and yet the trio couldn’t figure out why. They even hesitated to make a move on it, unsure if such an action was worth something like that…
“I hear they say that the Milky Way…can't help but envy me!”
As the performer neared the trio, Journal instinctively pushed the other two away and into the crowd. Much to their relief, the dagger-like object didn’t seem to notice them as they kept on dancing. They made no attempt to reverse direction either, continuing on their path through the other party objects until they made it out. By now, most of the phones were put away, and someone from the crowd would occasionally whoop or holler in excitement.
“I am the brightest star…”
The lights seemed to fade back to blue as the music played along, the objects that had previously been on the platforms performing their own tricks now gone entirely. All lights were on the performer as they walked back up to the stage they were on before, raising their arms as they sung…
“Superb, spectaculaaaaar!”
And then…the lights went out.
------------
It was a desert on the moon, when we arriiived…
“...?!...!!”
A loud shout echoed through the hallways of a ransacked house, the walls having been torn and scratched by some weapon. A single object within it frantically looked around each room as they made their way through the hallways, desperate to locate something in specific. After pulling up to so many empty rooms, they found themselves panicking at the sight of something vibrant sticking out against the dull browns and grays of the house. Racing over from their position, their heart rate only increased as they got into full view of the scene.
“No, no, no, nooo…”
Laying on the carpet of the main entrance room was a motionless, lifeless body that seemed to sparkle in the light. The adrenaline-filled object quickly ran over and dropped to their knees, gently putting their hands over the other object in hopes there was still something left. Shards, if not fragments of the other object’s body seemed to be scattered around the ground, and multiple injuries covered their body as they remained unresponsive to the touch. Breathing raggedly, the object gently picked up the other’s body and held it close to them, tears starting to streak their face as the thoughts began to spill into their head. They couldn’t be dead, they couldn’t!
Quiet sobs could be heard from the room, the object sitting on the rug of the house with their deceased partner in their arms.
Gathering all of my tears, heartbreak, and siiighs…
The object quickly got up and stumbled over to an area by the wall, not bothering to clean up the mess while they were at it. As soon as they reached the phone that was hung up there, they speed dialed without hesitation.
“C’mon C’mon hurry up! I don't have much time! Pick up!” the object murmured between sniffles, hiccups, and sobs.
“911, what’s your emergency?” the other object on the line asked.
“My partner has been MURDERED! Please, just…HELP!” the object choked out.
“Okay sir, can we get a first and last name?”
“I don’t have TIME for that!” the object shouted, their sadness quickly twisting into anger. “I’ll do it when you get here, just…just HURRY!”
“Alright, give us an address and we’ll send the cops your way. Please remain calm, and we-”
The object slammed the phone down to hang up before the other object on the line could finish. They turned around to see their partner’s deceased body once more, peacefully laying on the ground as they’d left them. A pang of sadness struck them once more, prompting more tears to flow despite their attempts to stop. All they could do now was deny what had happened until the cops got here, then maybe there was still a chance they could be rescued…
It was about 20 minutes later when the police sirens blared through the neighborhood. By that point however, the object had given up on everything. A search was done of the house, but the intruders were nowhere to be found despite the evidence. The police told the object to hang tight as they began an investigation, the object’s partner getting sent off to a hospital by ambulance…
But they were already too late.
~~~
“Stupid…stupid stupid STUPID-!”
Why?! Why did it have to be THEM?!
The object was beyond the belief that this was just a bad dream, as they’d woken up on so many mornings to find that things were not the way they were before. Nobody had said or even done anything to help them, and all they got as they walked around town in the day were murmurs and whispers about what had happened. Currently situated at an empty bar, late at night, the object angrily slammed their glass down on the table out of frustration.
“I’M GOING TO FIND THAT STUPID KILLER IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO!” they spat, their tone filled with ire and anguish. “I SWEAR, I’LL TEAR THEM APART, PIECE BY PIECE UNTIL THERE’S NOTHING LEFT! THEY WILL PAY FOR KILLING MY SOULMATE!!”
Nobody was there to hear their screams…but the anger was real.
Jade made a potion ignite! And turned the niiight…
“You’re sure this’ll work?”
The object stood within a dark alleyway, a cloaked figure before them. The figure had told them that they’d heard about the murder, and that they had just the thing to help with that. Some sort of magical charm, or spell of the sorts that would let them locate who did it in a snap…so that the killers could be given the same fate as punishment. Naturally the object had accepted, though a part of them was still…skeptical.
“Of course! We value our customers ever so much, so it’s only fair that you get the highest quality products!” the cloaked one spoke reassuringly.
“If you say so…but if this is just a scam, you’ll regret tricking me.”
It didn’t matter if the object’s partner wouldn’t have wanted this. The object themselves wanted this, because if they couldn’t have a happy ending, then nobody could. They closed their eyes as the cloaked figure began to chant something, starting to feel something coursing through their body. Though it stung through every inch of their body, the object breathed through clenched teeth as the spell took effect…
And in a blue flash of light, they’d transformed.
To a radiant city of light, from tears I riiise…
The object quickly ran up the leaf-covered hill, having only suffered a simple scrape to their knee along the way. Despite that pain they kept going, with nobody following behind. Fueled by adrenaline and anger, they made no attempts to stop as they took breath after breath. The police still hadn’t found the culprits after all those days, but that didn’t matter now.
That spell had worked, alright.
And if the ones in power couldn’t do things right…then this object would just have to take everything into their own hands. As they reached the top of the hill, they stopped to look out across the horizon, the town below as a sunset colored the skies.
“Start counting your days, whoever you are,” they snarled, standing up from their hunched over position.
“Here I come.”
------
“I riiiiiiise!”
As the drums kicked in again, the lights flashed back on as if everything were normal. However, the ceiling seemed to change its patterning, and Journal looked up to see some strange, sprinkler-like machines that hadn’t been there before. At first nothing seemed to happen, but then a stream of glittering blue mist began spraying out from each of them. Immediately getting an uneasy feeling from it, Journal elbowed the other two before scrambling to get the mask he’d brought on.
“Shoot, shoot-!”
Treasure Chest and Post-It Note quickly followed suit, and made sure not to breathe the dust as best they could. The performer didn’t seem to be phased by this new addition to their show, however.
“I'm the light every night in your world, hey!”
As the particles fell to the ground level, the objects nearby started coughing. Treasure Chest instinctively moved towards them in an attempt to help, but Journal quickly moved an arm in his way. Of the few objects stationed slightly outside of the crowd, many of them seemed to be picked up by the cloaked objects with masks, said objects seemingly…restraining them? as they tried to shake off the strange dust. Treasure Chest put his hands over his mouth to stop himself from saying anything, while Post-It Note looked over at the odd performer.
Was this why objects were going missing…?!
“You revel to the glory of my beauty!”
The three watched as the other objects struggled, unable to do anything out of fear they’d stand out too much. Post-It Note suddenly elbowed Journal in the side, pointing out towards a group of objects in the crowd. Their eyes were no longer black, instead they were a glowing cyan with a spiral patterning. Several objects seemed to be jerking around erratically, holding their head in their hands as if they were trying to fight back against whatever thoughts were creeping into their minds. It was then that the performer took off their attire, but…much to the three’s shock, instead of revealing a different outfit…
It revealed a whole different object underneath.
And a very familiar one, too.
“You ready to watch me be legendary?”
It was Chainsaw.
But…he looked different. Broken, almost. Sure, his body was still a sky blue plastic case, his handle a darker gray-blue and his triangular-tipped head a silvery gray. But his expression seemed to be a lot more pained than usual, despite his somewhat confident grin. He seemed to be wearing a black cape of sorts, tied around the front of him…but that wasn’t what stuck out the most to the trio. A long cord seemed to come from the back of him, swaying as if it were a tail of some sort. Instead of ending in a square or some other pull-able shape however, it was a stopwatch, complete with a glass cover and golden bezel. The patterning on the back of it was a hypnotic swirl pattern, and…oh.
Oh no.
Chainsaw grinned as tears glistened off his face, belting out the rest of the song as more and more objects fell around him.
“Cuz I'm ultraluminaryyyy!”
The objects in the crowd seemed to rise up in a zombie-like state, though they all snapped into the same position at the same time. All of their eyes lit up, their faces eerily contorted into an almost forced, widened grin. Some of the hypnotized objects even seemed to accompany him as he walked, as if they were bodyguards of some kind. The three did their best to keep up with their movement as the crowd started to sing, hoping to find a way out of this mess before it was too late...
“Whoah-ah-oh-oh, welcome to Lunaria!”
They all seemed to chant in unison, sending chills down the trio’s spines. Noticing their slightly wavy motion however, the three objects made haste in their attempt to copy them, hoping Chainsaw wouldn’t spot them amongst the crowd. Afraid of singing the wrong thing and getting caught that way, the trio remained quiet as the rest sung around them…
“Whoah-ah-oh-oh…”
“So spectacularia!”
Chainsaw joined in with the singing as the music went on, walking down from the platform he was on. The crowd seemed to dance over in some kind of formation as they sung, several objects backing up behind Chainsaw as he confidently stepped onto a different platform. From there, Chainsaw took the lead in the song and brushed off anything else that might've been on him before.
“Whoah-ah-oh-oh…"
“Super singulary!”
Journal, Post-It Note, and Treasure Chest were left to watch in horrified silence as the hypnotizing sprays disappeared, the crowd still and silent at Chainsaw's command. The music finally reached its ending point, to which Chainsaw struck a pose as he finished, arms widened as he displayed his hypnotized army to the world.
“Cuz I'm, so very, very…
Extraordinaria!”